1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a holding device for holding poultry pieces to be processed, which contain meat and bones in the form of gutted poultry carcasses or parts thereof for the purpose of processing and/or during such processing.
2. Prior Art
Numerous different constructions of such holding or retaining devices are known, which comprise a support body, onto which can be pushed the piece to be processed and which is equipped with a support surface supporting the piece at least on the inner contour of the breast bone or sternum, as well as controllable fixing means for fixing the piece to be processed.
For example, German patent 34 44 430 discloses a holding means in the form of a support block for receiving the carcasses of slaughtered poultry. Several of such support blocks are arranged on an endless conveyor driven in rotary manner, each support block carrying at its leading end, when seen in the conveying direction, a stop lug, behind which is fitted a holding pin movable in controlled manner from the support surface of the support block. This holding pin is kept retracted in the loading or feeding area of the device and immediately prior to the entry of the support block into the working area thereof it is controlled to move against the inside of the breastplate or corpus sterni, so that the holding pin penetrates the network of sinews or tendons located there and ensures a positive entrainment of the poultry carcass.
This holding means is only suitable for receiving breast caps, i.e. a poultry carcass portion from which the backbone area has been removed, so that saddling is possible. For the processing of unsaddlable front halves, i.e. portions which are obtained by an oblique cross-cut through the poultry body and which must be received in the neck opening the use of such a holding means is not possible.
EP-A-254 332 discloses a holding device for breast caps, which comprises a reception head with a hook-like abutment or stop element against which is movable a controlled holding pin passing out of the support surface. The breast cap is shoved against the stop element with the neck area first and with the corpus sterni engaging on the support surface, so that the stop element engages with its hook-like part over the corpus sterni in the area between the coracoids. The breast cap is then fixed by the holding pin, which penetrates the network of sinews located in this area and brings about a clamping action.
Such clamping mechanism also exists in a modified construction of the known holding device, in which the reception head is constructed in horn-like manner, so that it is possible to hold front halves of poultry.
However, the main drawbacks of these known structures are that the loading process is complicated and therefore time-consuming, because the front halves must first be inverted over and then retracted again for fixing purposes until the corpus sterni with its leading edge located between the coracoids engages on the holding means of the stop element. Another disadvantage of this construction is that the carcass remaining on the holding device after processing can only be removed in an equally complicated manner.